The Great Worm Lich

The Gate of Dao’s members, who were watching the battle, was taken by astonishment by the three-headed six-armed giant ape that was transformed by the successor of the ancient witchcraft. However, the big-eyed Taoist priest who was subdued by the ape was not discouraged at all.

With a diligent cultivation of nearly 100 years, his will that had been tempered to become as strong as steel made his originally turmoiled state to become composed instead after he had fallen in a disadvantageous state. Without warning, he suddenly looked up at the sky and laughed out loud, before snarling in an imposing manner. “You delinquent, now that you turned into an ape, your brain has become dumber. Your grew six arms to subdue the joints of my upper body and yes, you’ve indeed subdued me but you can’t move as well! Haha… If you want to wrestle, why don’t you try my Sky Shattering Technique!”

This violent snarl made the Taoists inside and outside the Four Image Formation to relax right away. Even Yu Longyu, who had become pessimistic and sullen, also started to doubt his own judgment in a pleasantly surprised manner. Only that elegant-looking Taoist inside the Formation could not help but lose his cool and shout, “Senior Brother, watch out! You lowly creature, take my Vermillion Bird Flame Throw…”

Without any reservation, he gathered the power in his body and his face that was as clear as jade swelled to become completely red. Using an assistive secret method, he created the illusion of a flaming full-fledged, lifelike giant bird behind him. It flapped its wings and with a shrill wail, it rushed into the sky and charged towards the giant ape in the middle of the formation.

Despite the fast speed of the elegant-looking Taoist, it was still not as fast as the ferocity of the monkey. At the same time when the flaming bird soared up to the sky, that golden-haired giant ape confidently flashed a human-like smirk at the big-eyed Taoist. With a savage roar, its three mouths on the three apes’ heads opened wide and buried its teeth on the head and neck of the big-eyed priest.

Even though the Taoist had experienced several battles of desperation in the chaos a few decades before, he had long lost the opportunity of the ancient times to give the world a chance to breathe. However, this modern Taoist, who had always been ready to face death, still could not compare favorably to the ancient sages. The instant the ape’s sharp teeth sank into his eye sockets and pierced into his brain, his spirit immediately broke down as he let out a desperate scream.

If he gritted his teeth and forcefully endured it on, he could still hold the ape back for a little while using his mysteriously profound technique and allowed some opportunity to his Senior Brother and Junior Brothers to reinvigorate. However, the instant he broke down, to even 10% of his energy could be unleashed at all, causing his bloody body to be easily lifted by the giant ape.

The big-eyed Taoist priest was one of the people setting up the Four Image Formation. Now that he had not yet died, by the mysterious law, he could still naturally command the Formation to launch its attack.

His gigantic body of ten meters tall was brandished by the ape like a shield. The countless Taoist army and spells blotting the entire sky transformed into multicolored ashes before disappearing in a flash. Only the Vermillion Bird consolidated by the elegant-looking priest did not vanish after it went near to the ape. Dodging the body of the big-eyed Taoist, whose blood and body was splattering everywhere, it dancingly flew around the ape, waiting for an opportunity to make its move.

The golden-haired ape dispelled the thunder and flame around it and when it finally obtained a chance to breathe, it did not deal with the flaming red bird. Instead, with a tyrannical gaze in its eyes, it swept its gaze around the surrounding and locked its gaze at the elegant-looking priest who had now run out of his energy with his face still flushed and was unable to suppress the trembling of his body for being overwhelmed with rage and his kind-heartedness for wanting to save his comrade, trying to exert his entire force to use his power.

The instant the elegant-looking priest locked eyes with the ape, he, who never thought that the successor of the ancient witchcraft could actually maintain its sanity and wisdom in such a bloody fierce battle, suddenly had a change of expression.

Without warning, a sense of despair rose in his heart, even so, he still did not give up in helping himself. He reached a hand into his robe and trembling took out a Jade Peach. Unfortunately, despite his fast speed, he was still not as fast as the ape who had used the big-eyed priest as a shield and had gritted his teeth to exert his entire force to dash and leap while ignoring the chase from the vermillion bird behind him.

The barrier of the formation was completely shattered by the big-eyed priest’s body. That ape instantly leapt to the front of the elegant-looking priest. All of its six thick arms strengthened their grip at the same time and ripped the big-eyed Taoist into several pieces. Amidst the bloody rain, it abruptly lowered its head and roared at the elegant-looking Taoist.

Under the impact of the sound waves and air current that could seemingly distort space spouted out of the ape, the body of the Taoist, who had already placed the Jade Peach in his mouth, suddenly blurred, with his soul seemingly becoming indistinct. After that, with a slap thrown by the ape, he was slammed to become a pile of bloody mess on the ground. The strange technique of the vermillion bird also had its fine feather turn dark behind the ape, before transforming into a blob of fire that dispersed in the sky.

In just a blink of an eye, after killing the two Taoist elders, the ape saw that the formation was still there. He lowered his head and looked at the two 10 meter tall substantial-looking primordial spirits that slowly rose from the body remnants. The giant ape hesitated a little and opened its mouth to suck them in right away. At that instant, the sparkling talisman on the rock let out a brilliant luster and the golden smoke in the air disappeared without a trace.

It only took the ape less than five seconds in total, from reversing the situation and subduing the big-eyed Taoist to breaking the formation. After obtaining its freedom, it did not stop for even a second. All of its six arms dropped to the ground and both of its feet exerted its power at the same time as it dashed towards the Gate of Dao’s elite disciples huddling together several hundreds of meters away.

Upon seeing the giant ape charging towards them, like a lion among a flock of sheep, and waving his arms throwing punches around, easily smashing the dumbfounded Gate of Dao’s disciples into pile of bloody mess, the aloof-looking Taoist priest, who was completely baffled by the battle situation, that had suddenly worsened to the worst circumstances, till he was struck dumb with fear, finally snapped back to reality. A corner of his eyes cracked with blood flowing all over his face as he casted his power to try to save them while screaming at the top of his lungs, “Flee! Flee! Flee now… How dare you? How dare you? You’re our Gate of Dao’s sworn enemy…”

After Zhang Lisheng, who transformed into the ape, relied on the surprise attack to kill four to five elite disciples continuously, he did not wish to continue the fight anymore when he heard the old Taoist laying the formation snapping back to reality from behind him. Without warning, he shrunk his body to just a meter tall and leapt down from the rocky hill. Exerting his entire effort on the sand, he dashed away and disappeared in just a span of a few breaths.

“S-Senior Brother, t-that delinquent has escaped! I can tell that he won’t be able to last long as well. S-Shall we give chase to him?” It was only until the young man’s figure had disappeared into the desert that the Taoist among the two remaining elders of the Gate who always smiled finally turned serious and walked over to the aloof-looking old Taoist before saying in a stutter.

“Of course we have to give chase. This is a matter of great importance! Even if we die, we must kill that delinquent! But first, we must gather the disciples so that we could work together to give chase to him…” The aloof-looking Taoist priest forced the few last words from between his teeth with a grave expression. He drew a rune in the air and produced an illusion of a fire dragon flying close to the ground, which then transformed the bloody bodies on the rock into nothingness.

After hastily cleaning up the battlefield, when he was just about to talk, he suddenly saw more than ten light balls flying at an unimaginable speed from the distant sky to the top of their heads.

When they recognized that it was the Atlanteans who came, most of the Gate of Dao’s people, whose faces were originally pale, became even paler. They did not know how the aliens would react to them. If the aliens made things difficult for them, they were afraid that they would bring trouble to the Gate if they made their moves. However, they would not feel reconciled if they did nothing. They wanted to act dumb but the mine that was riddled with new traces of destruction were undeniable evidence.

When they were still feeling at a loss, they suddenly heard a soft voice resonating in the sky. “Dear respected Earthling superhumans, the reason we came here is because we sensed an abnormal energy fluctuation here. Is there anything that you need help from us?”

“Thank you for your kind intention, our dear Atlantean friends. The reason we hide ourselves here in this desert is just to experiment with some new abilities. You know, when an Earthling obtains a supernatural power, we’ll be easily discriminated against by other people so we had no choice but…” Upon seeing the friendliness of the Atlanteans, the Gate of Dao’s members secretly sighed in relief. After being meaningfully glanced by their Masters, one of the disciples who was endowed with the gift of the gab began to cook up a lie.

“Is there still such discrimination in this free and liberal US? How regrettable,” One of the brightest light ball hovering in the sky said with a voice that was easy on the ear. “Or perhaps, all of you are not from this young country?”

“I’m from China, a country with a long history of civilization,” the disciples hesitated and sneaked a glance at the Master before telling the truth.

Upon hearing this answer, the light ball in the sky slowly landed. 15 to 16 redheaded, fair-skinned beautiful Atlanteans revealed themselves. One of them, who had the most noble temperament, said in pleasant surprise with a salute. “China? That is a brilliant and great country! Since you have such an extraordinary power and came from that ancient country, perhaps our ancestors have fought side by side with you before in order to defend the purity of the ‘universe’. Or perhaps, they have fought each other to death due to the misunderstanding of ideas. No matter what, a powerful person always deserves to be respected so please allow me to pay tribute to them.”

They did not know what the aliens were doing but since other people had saluted their ancestors, as a Chinese who emphasized on the concept of ethics the most in their civilization, be it the Gate of Dao elders or the elite disciples, all of them had no choice but to return the salute.

Upon seeing the aloof-looking old Taoist had a different way of salute from the others, the translating device worn in the eyes of that noble Atlantean automatically generated a row of data and images, causing his eyes to lit up and prompting him to say with a smile, “Dear respected sir, your dressing and manner of salute are very unique. As far as I know, it’s peculiar to an ancient supernatural inheritance group in China. That group is called the Gate of Dao and it’s said that they’re the pioneer that broke the ancient mythology and brought the Earthlings into the era of ‘the ruling of man’. It’s no wonder that you and your companions have just caused such a strong energy dissipation. ”

It had never crossed the old priest’s mind that their origins would actually be seen through by the alien. At once, he was at a loss for words and did not know how to answer. When the more than ten Atlanteans in front of the old priest saw the old Taoist’s conflicted expression, all of them inexplicably showed a pleasantly surprised expression, waiting quietly and patiently for him to reply.

The pursuing of the Gate of Dao’s members on the rocky mountain was hindered by the Atlanteans just like that. Zhang Lisheng, who was lucky enough to escape, dared to not slow down in the desert — not even for one second — as he summoned his strength and ran — and leapt — for 80 to 90 kilometers continuously. Gradually, the incarnation of the golden ape no longer could be maintained and he slowly returned to its human form.

At this time, the dense numerous wounds on his body oozed out droplets of thick viscous liquid that was dyed by the dried blood to become dark brown. Staggering on the desert, he looked as though he was going to fall anytime soon and would never climb up again. Even so, his spirit appeared to be unusually hale and hearty, his eyes were as bright as the stars in the night.